The Hives and J. Mascis Stop by Nerdist and WTF with Marc Maron

We have raved time and time again about how refreshing the podcasting medium is. It breaks the barriers between interviewer/interviewee and allows for a free-flowing conversation, where you feel as if you are in the same room with the individuals you are listening to and liberated from the forced Q&A template that plagues even the best of interviews.

Luckily, last week, two of our favorite podcasters had great musical guests stop by their garages/studios. J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. sat down with a giddy Marc Maron to talk about his upbringing as well as his band’s development, while The Hives stopped by The Nerdist podcast to speak about not only music and their musical influences, but IKEA, “the Sisyphean” lifestyle of Los Angeles, as well as offering a hearty account of how they learned English through their exposure to American TV shows like Dallas.

The two podcasts also show the importance of the conversational element in this medium. Even if a guest is as shy and as reserved as J. Mascis (David Cross supposedly said “Good luck with that,” to Maron upon hearing about the prospective interview), the free-flowing nature of the conversation gradually allows the guest to open-up, laugh, and to feel an overall sense of relief. Then, on more fortunate occasions, the conversation will flow so naturally that there is no need to alleviate any deep-seated discomfort, and that is why The Hives on The Nerdist proves to be such a blast.